The Wheel and Axle

I was ready to watch this year’s Miss Universe with friends while on a mini-staycation in a nice AirBnB unit in BGC. Although we’d long wanted to watch the pageant live should it be staged here once again, circumstances prevented us from proceeding.

However, when our mini-staycay started on Saturday afternoon, my friend Bj (a.k.a. Pinoy Travel Whore, the sixth person to visit all 81 provinces of the Philippines) convinced me to join a Q&A Facebook contest sponsored by TV5 in collaboration with several popular pageant-focused social media sites. The prizes would be tickets to the coronation. On a whim, I thought, Why not? then proceeded to respond to the various questions. There were quite a few, mind you, and I had to fit it in right while I was also writing the article on my personal faves for this year’s pageant. (continue reading…)

The Miss Universe 2016 pageant will be broadcast live from Manila tomorrow (local time), the first from the Philippines since 1994, and as the country has always been pageant-crazy, this year’s show is doubly exciting for Pinoys.

As with any enthusiast, I have my own personal picks. After seeing the social media pictures and clips as well as the preliminaries that streamed live last Thursday, I have tried my best to determine who I feel should be part of the Top 12. It was a pretty difficult task, really, as there are a lot of fierce and fabulous contenders, so I went and chose 16 ladies any of whom I think deserve to make it to the Top 12 (well, Top 13 since it’s been confirmed that the winner of online voting will be included as a 13th candidate rather than be among the twelve).

(continue reading…)

Credits: The Hollywood Reporter

… as she celebrates her 63rd birthday today. And in her lifetime, she has become a living legend.

Who in the world by now doesn’t know the great Oprah Winfrey?

Here is a self-made icon who, through sheer perseverance and talent in an industry dominated by white male personalities, became the most powerful media mogul of all time. Beyond her talk show, she also made marks as an occasional actress and an author. She broke glass ceilings by being black, being a woman, and being the most successful amongst her peers (assuming she even has any) – hell, she’s the first black woman billionaire in history.

(continue reading…)

That seriously broke and warmed my heart at the same time.

Let’s never take for granted the beauty that we have that others do not. It’s also always wonderful to see someone experience the wonders of nature for the first time.

So many uses for this amazingly versatile word.

P.S. As an avowed #grammarnazi, I need to point out that (1) one of the first examples does not denote transitive/intransitive but rather active/passive, and (2) in “fucking beautiful,” it is an adverb, not an adjective. But let’s ignore me and carry on.

Ellen Degeneres has been inspiring generations of LGBT folks for about two decades now. Ever since she broke ground in 1997 by coming out as a lesbian, she has served as a role model not just for the LGBT community but for women as well. In fact, she is a role model for people in general, period.

She’s smart, hilarious, charitable, and loves to give us what we want – lots of shirtless hot men on her show! – even if she swings the other way.

(continue reading…)

College Humor never fails to make me laugh.

Recently, I woke up in the middle of the night, energized with new ideas for a couple of short stories. These, on top of the novel sequel that I’d been plotting in my head for some time now.

It was time to write more fiction!

Then I thought, Would I be writing fiction, or would it turn out to be fake news?

I went back to sleep and dreamt about a world where there were no stupid people propagating moronic nonsense in social media and where there were no idiots believing in them.

One week away, darlings.

Today, we remember the life of Heath Ledger, taken away from us nine years ago at the prime of his life and career.

In memoriam, here are ten things about Heath that I will never forget.

1. Heath’s performance as Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain will forever be one of the most iconic portrayals of gay men in cinema.

2. He’s Australian, and I adore Australians.

3. Casanova: the film I first fully saw him in (yes, I missed Ten Things I Hate About You and others prior) and where I kind of fell in love with him.

(continue reading…)